Question

After reading Chapter 12 and reviewing the PowerPoint slides, you should understand the important role effective communication plays in our organizations. In this assignment you will be part of a scenario and will write a (400 word) memorandum.

You are a middle level manager and during the last few weeks you have experienced several communication problems which have made your job more difficult. Reflecting on the chapter on communication, you realize there could and should be changes in your company to improve communication.

You will write a memo to your boss, the V.P. In this (minimum of 400 word) memo you will:

• describe the importance of effective communication in the organization
• identify three specific and significant areas where you find ineffective communication (you can create any three problem areas), and
• for each of the three communication problems create an action plan describing how you believe this problem can be corrected. Each action plan should include answers to who, what, where, when, and how.

You must be persuasive and convince the V.P. to implement these actions in your department and/or company wide.

Answer 1

Importance of effective communication in organisation:

To run a successful team, employees, managers and all level of executives need to communicate clearly and effectively and be transparent. Poor communication and miscommunication can lead to poor team building, angry employees, losses to company or missed opportunities. Poor communication can also lead to poor employee engagement and reduced interest levels towards the job.

Communication is the key as said. Clear communication from management to executive level for all company related policies, work orders, information and at the same time from executives to management for putting forth their content or pain points etc. is important. It is a two process of saying and listening; often either or is missed or misinterpreted.

Three specific and significant areas where ineffective communication can create problems:

1. Emails: comprehension of emails is an art and often mislead. Most of the times emails are too quick to write while not too quick to understand. An overloaded inbox often misses out on some important emails altogether which is a matter of miscommunication.

2. Communication Silos: people in one team or department often restrict themselves to the nutshell which makes them miss a bigger picture or exchange of other ideas from outside their team or department. Collaboration with other departments in organization can give fresh and untapped perspectives.

3. Poor communication with remote employees (off-site / off payroll / work from home etc.): The so called deskless workers more often depend on technology and gadgets to communicate; even after trying level best, these employees tend to miss out on messages etc. This also leaves them with a sad and disappointed feeling of being kept aloof and hence affects their productivity. Infact poor productivity in remote working is majorly caused by poor communication. While in-office workers are able to communicate face-to-face, deskless employees have to rely on people or gadgets to a great extent.

Action plan for ineffective communication:

	Emails	Silos	Remote workers
Who	Team workers, executives, staff level and mid management	Co-workers in team / department	People onsite / offsite / work from home
What	Missing imp.communications	Restricting communications to a close knit group only	Not able to match with desk employees and miss information sharing
Where	Office	Office	Home Location
When	Everyday basis	Everyday basis	Everyday basis
How	Corrective measures is to limit emails and communicate on text or call for urgent reciprocation. Too many emails spans the inbox gradually making it tough to make information reach.	Interactions and group exercises amongst various departments in organization for breaking ice and bringing in comfort zone between all employees needs to be taken seriously.	Creating common chat or talk platform like IM, Skype logins or Facetime etc. should be made standard protocols apart from email.

Organizations should encourage more dialogues and interactions by meet and greet, festivities and celebrations to make employees comfortable and more open to each other. This helps them perform with ease and comfort while at work. Also it creates workable zone for them.